万歳！
Are you nice enough to the Asian-Americans in your life? Really? Reallyreally? If not, you still have a week or two to straighten out:
May is Asian Pacific American (APA) Heritage Month
Are you nice enough to the Asian-Americans in your life? Really? Reallyreally? If not, you still have a week or two to straighten out:
May is Asian Pacific American (APA) Heritage Month
If I don’t know any Asian Americans, do I have to go find one?
Actually, that’s one of the things that is less likeable about Alabama than NJ – it’s a more homogeneous population here, which is quite a difference from Jersey City, where whites were a minority. I don’t think I’ve seen an Asian of any persuasion in Columbiana, and the only ones I remember seeing in B’ham were Indians and (at the Chinese restaurant) Chinese.
I did have a friend who is half Japanese, but apparently he’s blown me off. An odd guy; very nice in an abrupt way, very attractive and hyper-intelligent, has a PhD in physics. Nada social graces, very self-contained, won’t reach out to anyone hardly. His dad, a Caucasian American, met his mom while stationed in Japan, common story. His parents are still happily married, and Ben loves his mom to bits, but I think he got the worst of both worlds: the strong silent macho man thing from his dad, and the emotionally distant don’t-touch-me culture thing from his mom. Sigh. I really liked him.
But maybe that says something about my emotional adjustment.
Well, someone has to be a friend to the emotionally-unavailable man. Are you sure he’s blowing you off? Maybe he’s just not sure how to issue invitations. That’s not to say that an adult isn’t responsible for figuring out how to reciprocate friendship, but if you really liked him….
Re. what you said about your new town: when my college friends gather in California (a good four or five among us ended up going to Berkeley for grad school) for a wedding, the big joke is that I arrive from Tokyo and say, “Wow! Everyone’s white.” Our friend Whitney, who moved back to her Kentucky hometown after college and now lives in Nashville, arrives and says, “Wow! Everyone’s Asian.” Perspective is a funny thing.